For anyone watching last Sunday's Best Buy 400, it may come as no shock that the many found the 400-lap event somewhat uneventful. Besides an eleven-car pile-up on Lap 16, thanks to Best Buy's own Elliott Sadler, there was very little action worth noting. Some in the media were quick to blame the Monster Mile for the dull racing that happened this past weekend.

Taking a closer look at driver comments from this weekend, it becomes clear the current car is more to blame than the track itself.

In a race in which only six cars remained on the lead lap at the time of the checkered flag, this backs up Greg Biffle's comment of, "Clean air is king." Any car that can separate itself from lapped traffic is able to pull away and keep the field at bay. This was the case for Kasey Kahne is the Sprint All-Star Race, and we saw it again this week at Dover.

An outspoken critic of the current car the last few weeks, Roush Fenway Racing's Greg Biffle expressed his frustration with the new car following last week's test at Pocono Raceway.

"I think that's one of the things that's created less passing. People have complained about the races being boring, there's not as much side by side,?"Biffle explained. "[In the past] if the body was off, your balance wasn't right, there's not a spring or shock in the world that will fix it. Now all of our cars are so close together, they're so similar, that we're so equal, that's what makes it hard to pass. We're all going a similar speed and our car is identical. That makes it more difficult, because you have to be a fair amount faster than the guy in front of you in order to pass him, in order to get beside him and pass him.

"It's a double-edged sword," Biffle continued. "We've made them all equal or made them more equal, but at the same time that makes it a little bit more difficult to pass the guy in front of you when everybody is the same. It's done two things for us: it's closed the field up and bunched the cars up, but at that time it's made it a little bit more difficult to get side by side and pass."

With Speedway Motorsports Inc.'s (SMI) recent acquisition of Kentucky Speedway, Dover has been mentioned as a prime candidate for another Bruton Smith takeover. Only three tracks on the Cup Series schedule are not owned by SMI or International Speedway Corp. (ISC); Dover, Pocono Raceway and Indianapolis. The owners of Pocono have continually denied their facility is for sale, while the sale of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway would simply be asinine. For many, that leaves Dover.

The one-mile, high-banked concrete oval is one of the most unique tracks in all of NASCAR and is a favorite of fans and drivers a like. Offering an on-site casino and hotel that overlooks the track, Dover has continued to update its facilities to be more fan-friendly (take for example the new 46-feet tall Miles the Monster Monument outside Turn 4).

"I love [Dover]. I would hate to see this track go anywhere," three-time Dover winner Jeff Gordon explained. "We need to be on
high-banked, one-mile, fast action-filled race tracks running 400 miles. To me this is it. Could we pick this track up and locate it in about three other locations; that would be fantastic. Right now as far as I know it's here in Dover, Delaware and I hope it stays."

As far as Pocono goes - the other track mentioned for the potential SMI takeover - Gordon was less sympathetic. "I love the Mattioli's (the family that owns Pocono) and I'm a huge supporter of them," Gordon said, "but their race track is out dated. It needs a ton of upgrades. I think that the fact that it's in the Northeast is a positive thing, but I'm shocked that they've had two races as long as they have and I'll be surprised if that stays that way for the future."

Races at Dover can become strung out and usually are determined by fuel strategy, but for the most part the racing is exciting. Sunday's Best Buy 400 was a definite exception. The 400-lap race ended with Kyle Busch in Victory Lane for the fourth time this year. His margin of victory over second place Carl Edwards was 4.22 seconds - not exactly a nail-biter. In all only six cars remained on the lead lap and there were only two on track passes for the lead - all others happened during green-flag pit stops. Other than the Lap 16 crash off Turn 2, very little excitement took place.

Most drivers pointed the blame towards the new car rather than the track. Greg Biffle was particularly upset with how his car handled in traffic.

"The lap traffic was really, really tough today," Biffle said following the race. "We just had a really tough time with these cars. You get about 20 car lengths behind a car and you can't pass them even though you're faster than them. It was a real tough day for us."

Even race-winner Kyle Busch expressed his frustration with how this new car reacts when behind another car.

"Once you get up into their wake," Busch explained, "their buffer, the car doesn't feel as secure, doesn't feel as comfortable without having the air going over it, the little amount of air that does go over it. So, you know, it's kind of frustrating when you can't gain on somebody. You couldn't go to the top and try to pick up any time because it's just too long around and the cars are too tight."

"It wasn't I guess all that exciting," Busch said after his fourth victory of the year. "You know, that's a product of what we've got going on here. We're working on trying to make our cars go as fast as they can. The faster we make them go, the more aero-dependent they're going to be. The more you put out on the racetrack, the more the air is going to get screwed up. You know, we're all fighting for space. We're all fighting for air. We're all fighting for everything.

"Sorry it wasn't exciting."

The next two races on the Cup Series schedule are known for their strung out, dull racing. The 2.5-mile tri-oval Pocono Raceway and the 2-mile D-shaped Michigan International Speedway often feature marathon races with little side-by-side racing - and that was in the old style car.

If you are tuning in to the next few races, you might want to skip the mid-section of the event. With drivers struggling to get a handle on these new cars, pulling up on the car in front of them and successfully pulling off the pass may be near impossible.

"That's how NASCAR and everybody wanted these cars to be, really close together," Biffle explained. "Everybody's got the same car. When everybody has the same car, you can't pass."